Dental floss device



I 1956 T. F. SCHLICKSUPP 2,736,327

DENTAL FLOSS DEVICE Filed Jan. 26, 1953 INVENTOR Tiradare i7 .5 chm/m1 United States Patent DENTAL FLOSS DEVICE Theodore F. Schlicksupp, Long Island City, N. Y.

Application January 26, 1953, Serial No. 333,241

2 Claims. (Cl. 132-91) This invention relates to improvements in devices for facilitating the use of dental floss. Devices have heretofore been proposed for supporting a short length of dental floss upon some form of handle for the purpose of enabling the filament or thread of dental floss to be inserted between the teeth without necessitating the entrance of a finger into the oral cavity to support and guide one end of the thread. Such devices, however, are all unsatisfactory for one reason or another. In some instances they are clumsy to use, and in others, unreliable, that is to say, the thread or filament of floss is not securely anchored in place and quickly becomes slack, whereas it is important that the thread be held firmly taut. Also, such devices as heretofore proposed were not susceptible of being manufactured by automatic machinery, and it will be understood that this is of considerable importance, since the unit cost of such devices must, necessarily, not be very much greater than the cost of the dental floss itself.

An object of the present invention is to provide a dental floss device in which the thread or filament is firmly anchored to the holder and remains taut until the filament deteriorates, with use.

Another object of the invention is to provide a dental floss holding device which is susceptible of being manufactured in large quantity production by the use of automatic machinery.

The invention will be understood by reference to the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the dental floss device;

Fig. 2 is an end view of one of the arms of the device;

Fig. 3 is a view in elevation of the end portion of the arm shown in Fig. 2; and

Figs. 4 and 5 are respectively an elevational and a plan view illustrating the manufacture of the dental floss device.

Referring now to these drawings, the device comprises a U-shaped holder 1, made of rigid metal and having its opposite end portions bent at right angles to the body of the holder and into parallel position in the same plane, like a hack saw frame, to form holding arms 2 and 3 for a short length of dental floss 4. The length of the dental floss holder is such that the device can be readily held adjacent one end between the thumb and finger of one hand and manipulated to work the dental floss 4 between the teeth. A convenient size is to make the distance between the two arms 2 and 3 of the order of one and onehalf inches (1%").

It is important that the holder 1 be of rigid construction so that the arms 2 and 3 cannot bend or give toward one another to relax the taut condition of the thread or filament 4 of the dental floss. Consequently, it is essential that the holder frame 1 be made of stiif metal, such for example as, Alcoa 24 ST aluminum and having a diameter of approximately five sixty-fourths of an inch 2,736,327 Patented Feb. 28, 1956 Any other material of comparable hardness and s-tifiness is suitable, provided that the material can .be worked at the ends of the arms 2 and 3 as is about to be described in anchoring the thread or filament of dental floss 4.

In order to firmly hold the opposite ends of the dental floss filament, an angular cut 5 is made in the end of each of the arms 2 and 3 for a distance of approximately onesixteenth of an inch 1 this cut dividing the ends of each of these arms into two substantially equal halves or jaws 6 and 7. The angular cut 5 can best be made by means of a chisel 8 which is pushed into the metal of the ends of the two arms 2 and 3. This is preferably accomplished simultaneously by the use of a chisel for each of the arms. The cutting edge of chisel 8 is formed with two portions which are disposed at an angle to each other which is less than so as to produce the angular cut as indicated at 5 in Fig. 2.

The operation of chisel 8 serves to force the two halves 6 and 7 apart leaving between them a flared opening 9. The dental floss is then easily fed, from a supply roll (not shown), into these openings in the two arms 2 and 3. The two halves 6 and 7 of each arm are then pinched together to lock the dental floss between them. This may be accomplished by means of a pair of closing jaws such as indicated at 10 in Fig. 5 and which, it will be understood, are arranged to move simultaneously into engagement with the opposite sides of the halves 6 and 7, forcing them together, and then withdrawing to their original positions as shown in Fig. 5. It will be understood that after the dental floss has been fixed in this way to each of the arms 2 and 3, the thread from the supply roll is severed, and the excess, if any, trimmed substantially flush with the outside surface of each arm.

The pinching together of the two halves 6 and 7 of arms 2 and 3 squeezes the ends of the dental floss 4 each into a flat fan-shaped layer, as shown in Fig. 1 and at 11 in Fig. 3, whereby a considerable surface area of the floss is engaged. This frictional clamping, together with the pinching caused at the angle 12, between the two portions of the cut 5, produces a firm anchorage which holds the dental floss in place until it is used up.

I claim:

1. A dental floss device comprising a U-shaped frame of stiff metal, the end portion of each arm of said frame having a cut therein formed with two portions disposed at an angle of less than 180 to each other, the cuts in the two arms being disposed approximately in alignment with one another and generally parallel to the plane of the frame, and a fiilament of dental floss having its opposite ends positioned within said respective cuts, the portions of each arm on opposite sides of said cuts clampingly engaging the filament and anchoring it by the rigidity of the metal of said portions.

2. A dental floss device comprising a U-shaped frame of stiif metal, the end portion of each arm of said frame terminating in a pair of stub jaws, and a filament of dental floss bridging the space between said arms and having its opposite ends positioned between said respective pair of jaws, the stub jaws clampingly engaging the floss by the rigidity of the metal of said jaws, the end portions of the floss engaged by said jaws being spread out into a thin fan-shaped layer and presenting a relatively wide surface area against which the jaws are clamped.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,569,083 Frey Jan. 12, 1926 2,149,981 Pedersen Mar. 7, 1939 2,162,240 Boldusoff June 13, 1939 

